Electronic memories are used in many electronic circuits and devices. The memories are used to store data, for example, instructions and other information used by the electronic circuits during operation. As electronic circuits and devices have continued to decrease in size, so has the physical size of the memory. Further driving miniaturization of memory circuitry is the greater demand for storing more data, that is, electronic memories have increased storage capacity despite the decreasing size.
Decreased size and greater memory capacity are typically achieved by shrinking the dimensions of the circuitry, including making physical features of the circuitry smaller. With the smaller circuitry voltage levels used during memory operation have decreased, which have resulted in internal, memory signals, for example, having less voltage margin for proper operation of the memory.
An approach that has been taken to account for the decreasing voltage levels and voltage margins is to design circuitry that has greater sensitivity to the lower voltage level signals. For example, sense amplifiers are used in memory circuitry to read data from memory by sensing and amplifying the data state of memory being read. The sense amplifier circuitry, as most electronic circuitry, has inherent offsets which may be caused by mismatches in circuit performance resulting from manufacture or design. Examples of the inherent offsets include voltage offsets and amplifier gain offsets. The offsets may be significant enough relative to the voltage levels of the internal memory signals that offset compensation is necessary for proper operation of the memory.
Therefore, there is a need for sense amplifiers and methods of sensing that provide offset compensation, for example, to accurately sense data states of memory even with less voltage margin.